Gujarat farmers block highway to protest lack of irrigation water in Bhavnagar district, leaders detained

The agitating farmers

By A Representative
Farmers of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat have begun showing signs of frustration over lack of irrigation water to save the winter crop. Information trickling from remote parts of the area say, the farmers of Talaja and Mahuva of Bhavnagar district have gone restive, going so far as to block the highway connecting between the two towns.
The farmers were demanding irrigation water from the right-side canal of the Shetrunji irrigation project.
“After a long time, and under extreme pressure from the farming community of the dam’s command area, the government officials agreed decided to release water in the canal”, said farmers’ leaders attached with the Gujarat Khedut Samaj, Bharatsinh Vala and Pinak Dhameliya.
“However, the water was not enough to reach the last village along the canal”, they said, adding, “Without water, they knew, the winter crop will be completely lost. Despite repeated demands and innumerable memoranda to the district collector the administration was not to be moved.”
“Fearing the worst for their crops, the farmers, in desperation blocked the highway on Wednesday for nearly two hours although completely within the bounds of law and maintaining complete discipline and peace”, they said, adding, “More than 1,000 farmers came on to the road to support the agitating farmers.”
“The government, as usual, resorted to the only way that it knows of talking to the people: by detaining them. When the police came to detain the leaders, the people present there insisted on them all being detained. The police then released all of them”, they said.
Officers from the Irrigation Department met the agitating farmers and gave them an assurance of releasing the water immediately. The water should reach the last village within 3 days, they told them. Following this assurance and the release of water the farmers have decided to call off their agitation.
Gujarat Khedut Samaj secretary Sagar Rabari has in a statement criticized the state government for detaining the farmers demanding irrigation water to secure their winter crop from Shetrunji irrigation project.
He said, “The government action of detaining the farmers its approach towards the farmer and village community. This is also suppression of the people’s right to dissent.”
Meanwhile, reports from remote parts of the area say that not just agriculture but even the villages in other remote areas of Gujarat, too, are facing shortage of water as they are not only getting water once in three days, but are forced to buy it from private players.
Sarpanches are reportedly worried and believe would see riots. One of them, Rakesh Patel, sarpanch of Siosdara, has been quoted as saying, "I have five villages in my jurisdiction and in majority of the villages the water is supplied ever alternate day.”
In another village, Linboi, people are forced to buy water from private suppliers as the village does not have any source of water. The panchayat has written for a construction of the well in the village. “However, we are not sure whether we will get water. But we are hopeful as Vatrak rivers flows in the vicinity of the village."
Bhikhabhaui Varu, sarpanch of Kanthaiya Koli village in Jaffrabad, says that the village is getting Narmada water but the supply is not reliable and hence the villagers were supplied water once in three days. He adds, there was no question of taking any crop as this was a saline area.
"The villagers are forced to buy water from the private suppliers. They store the water supplied by the Panchayat for drinking purpose, while the water purchased from suppliers is saline is being used for washing clothes and other household usage", he adds.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog